Travel

new orleans is the kind of place that changes your perspective. my favorite day of our trip was when we wandered with no destination. along the way we discovered two interesting warehouse spaces; one housed a non-profit bike shop called plan B and the other was home to an unconventional library and bookstore called iron rail. they had thousands of zines and a friendly staff. my favorite zine that i purchased that day is titled keep loving, keep fighting & i hate this part of texas #7 it's a collaboration of two new orleans residents reflecting on hurricane katrina and their relationship with their city as it rebuilds. as i read the crooked pages of the handmade book on our flight home, i was deeply touched by their vivid descriptions on what life was like post katrina. thought i would share a few of my favorite sentences and paragraphs, along with some of my photographs from our trip.

a city that has so little to lose offers everything it has.

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there is no place like this city, the dancing in the streets, the pure celebration that comes from living so close to losing everything.

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the days of spring are a glorious release after the damp cold and before the dripping heavy heat. everyone is excited and in good spirits, everything is in bloom. it's all music and sex and vibrant, verdant life. i can smell the honeysuckle and sweet olive crawfish boil and the coffee roaster down the street. i can hear parrots and starlings in the trees, someone hammering nearby, the demented calliope on the river, traffic and conversation and the hum of the power plant, someone playing trumpet. city sounds.

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you leave bits of yourself, constantly. cells die and slough off, little bits of skin and hair come off and are swept under carpets, into the cracks of the sidewalks and the corners of rooms. the longer you are somewhere, the more of you gets left there, you are apart of what makes up that place.

it works the other way, too. you're taking in a little bit of where you are all the time. the air, the sounds and smells, the things that rub off onto you and are absorbed through your skin. the way people talk and you start talking like that, too. the way the sun effects your pigment. you become a part of your place, and the place becomes you.

-from keep loving, keep fighting and i hate this part of texas #7